Just a few days later was Valentine's Day, and I had told Juan we didn't need to do anything special. I saw no need to have a special day to tell each other how much we love each other. We did that every day. I'd made him promise no Valentine's Day gifts. I was cooking him dinner, though. I was making one of his and my favorite dishes. It was macaroni and cheese, yes, but I added my own touches to it. I put extra cheese in it, and chopped up hamburger meat. For a vegetable I had gotten corn on the cob. I'd already made one of my chocolate pies for dessert and it was in the fridge now setting.
As I finished up cooking, I had my phone plugged into a dock, and I was jamming out to music, dancing around the kitchen as I worked, wearing one of his large tee-shirts and boycut underwear, but no bra. 'Dad's Gonna Kill Me,' by Richard Thompson was playing and I was singing along, so I didn't hear my husband come in. I saw him, when I was turning from the stove to the sink to drain the noodles, and stuck my tongue out at him, but then I noticed the bouquet of black roses and wrapped gift he was holding and I reached over to turn the music down. "I said no gifts," I reminded him, keeping my attention on what I was doing.
There was a rustle as he set the flowers and gift down on the counter, then came over to put his hands on my waist and kiss the side of my neck. "I believe your exactly words were, 'No Valentine's Gifts.' I got you a gift for our anniversary," he assured me. I turned my head to see his face, cocking an eyebrow at him. He didn't need me to voice what was going on in my mind. "I know we haven't been married a year. It was Valentine's Day last year that we went on our first date and I told you I love you," he clarified.
Closing my eyes, I leaned my head back against his chest for a moment, feeling like an idiot. "Okay, we really need to decide now which anniversaries we're celebrating? May 4th? February 14th? November 4th?" I listed our first date ever, the first date after I moved to Charming, and our wedding anniversary. His answer was all of them. I moved back to the stove when he stepped back, working to mix everything together. "All three? You sure you're gonna be able to remember all of them every year, biker boy?" I teased, but I was kind of touched that he wanted to celebrate every date important to us. "I don't have anything for you," I sighed, which was my main problem at the moment with his idea.
Chuckling, he pulled me against him, kissing the shell of my ear and nipping it with his teeth. "Trust me, I'll enjoy it as much as you will," he murmured in my ear, and that made me fairly certain it was lingerie, so I decided I'd let it slide. "Besides, you give me everything, just by being you, and loving me, Krystal Leann Ortiz. You have been so amazing since we came home. A better Old Lady than I ever hoped of having. You deserve to be appreciated, angel of mine, so you're going to have to get used to getting things," he told me. I knew he was remembering my stubbornness about accepting gifts.
Instead of responding immediately, I finished what I was doing, turning the stove off and then turning around in his arms, snaking mine around his neck. "You give me everything I ever need without buying me a damn thing, Juan Carlos Ortiz," I threw his full name back at him since he'd pulled that with me, "Honestly, I don't need material things. You know this. I have you. We have our house, and pretty soon our two babies. All I need is you and your love. You deserve a good Old Lady, so that's what I'm going to be for you. Can you do me a favor and set the table, though?" I looked up at him with puppy dog eyes and he laughed, kissing my forehead before letting me go so he could do that, while I brought the food to the table, getting a beer out of the fridge for him, and an icy water bottle for myself.
We had a very nice dinner, but it wasn't long before his phone went off, and he shot up when he checked the text. I asked him what was going on before he could get far. "We finally have a lead. I'm headed to the clubhouse. Jax should be there. You wanna come with? You can hang out at the clubhouse while we follow it," he asked, and I nodded, running upstairs to throw on a pair of black skinny jeans, a bra and a tank top. I put my leather jacket and boots on and followed him outside, getting on the back of his bike.
Rubbing my boobs, which were already growing, up against his back, I whispered in his ear. "One day soon, we're going to fuck on this bike. Perhaps when you finish following this lead. I'm gonna put you in handcuffs, because that sounds sexy as fuck. You are so fucking sexy when you're protective," I bit at the shell of his ear and scooted even closer, draped over his back as close as possible. I really enjoyed fucking him as much and as often as possible. I thought people had said that would stop when we were married, but it hadn't stopped for us in the slightest and I loved that.
Once we were at the clubhouse, Juan went to find Jax in chapel. It took them only a few minutes for Juan to let Jax know what was going on, and for them to take off, accompanied by Happy who had apparently also been there. I'd seen Tara's car in the lot, but I couldn't find Tara. I sat at the bar with a water for about five minutes and I was wondering where everyone else was when I heard the door open. A couple sets of footsteps rushed down the hall and two guys in masks came in. "This her?" a voice I didn't recognize asked his partner.
Standing up, I was about to shout for help, do something, but before I could even really react, the other one had hit me in the face. I barely heard his reply as I lost consciousness. "It has to be. Tara's car is here, and he told us she had dark hair, and no one else is supposed to be here." Then I was lost to the darkness. The first thing that went through my mind when I started to come to was 'How in the actual fuck do I keep getting myself in these situations?' I tried to reach up and feel my head, which was pounding, and realized that I was tied up.
Slowly opening my eyes, I tried to figure out where I was and what the situation was, but the bright lights agitated my head, so I snapped them shut again, trying again a few seconds later and managing to keep them open. I noticed that Tara was tied up next to me, and then my brain finally caught up and I realized I was hearing a man's voice yelling at someone else. "You fucking idiots. I said get Tara. What the fuck happened? How do you end up with two Old Ladies? Don't even fucking answer that. You two idiots get in there and sort this shit out. When you've finished up, report back to me. You know where I'll be," I heard, and then I heard footsteps down a hallway as whoever it was who'd been yelling left. He had an accent, but I couldn't place if it was Irish or something else.
For the next few minutes, the "two idiots" I could only assume, argued about what to do, but they weren't shouting and they stayed in the hallway outside the room, and the door was closed. My hands were tied behind my back, and it felt something like the rope that had my hands tied was tied to the chair I was sitting in. I looked over at Tara, who was still unconscious, and noticed she seemed to be in the same predicament. My legs were loose, so I tried to kick her chair hard enough to wake her, whispering her name, but I didn't want to attract the attention of the men, so I couldn't be loud enough to wake her.
Sighing, I grumbled under my breath, trying to figure out what I could do, when the door opened and the two men I'd seen wearing masks earlier came into the room. I asked them what they wanted, trying to remain apathetic and unbothered, my emotionless mask I'd perfected over the years in place. "You're not Tara, so I'm guessing you're the tech guy's Old Lady. We were meant to pass on a message to Tara, but since there was a slight misunderstanding, we get to have fun with both of you," one of the men answered, and I was pretty sure it was an Irish accent.
Trying to work out what they were getting at, I asked what the message was, and who I was supposed to give it to, exactly. The other one slowly approached me. "Well, our boss has realized that Opie's murder doesn't mean anything if you don't know who did it. So he had someone pretending to be a witness to keep your men busy, and we were supposed to tell Teller's Old Lady this: It's not going to be as simple as just walking away from the Real IRA. He better think long and hard about it, or not only will more people die, we will find all the women, and repeat what is about to happen to you two. Lucky you, Teller's lady is still unconscious, so you get to go first," he took a knife and reached behind me, cutting me loose from the chair, but my hands were still bound behind my back.
Grabbing me by the throat, he kissed me hard. I realized where this was going and I started fighting, biting down hard on his tongue when he tried to force it into my mouth, and aiming my knee at his groin. He groaned in pain, throwing me to the floor hard enough to jar my already pounding head as it smacked onto the floor. I had trouble focusing but I listened as he cursed and the other guy tried to hold my feet down while the other guy recovered, and then set to work pulling my pants down. I may not have had access to my hands, but I was not going to be a victim again if I could help it. I kicked my feet, squirmed and wiggled, doing anything I could. I managed to get a leg free and kick one in the face, and in the next moment, Tara had thrown herself at the one I hadn't kicked.
Sitting up, I was able to angle and get my knife out of my back pocket as Tara kept the second guy busy, the other one still clutching his probably broken nose. I had just got my hands free and stood up when I noticed that Tara had lost the upper hand. The guy was on top of her and choking her, lifting up his other hand to punch her in the face. I threw myself on his back, trying to hold my knife to his neck, but before I could say anything, he started struggling to throw me off, and we ended up rolling on the floor, each of us fighting for the upper hand. In the struggle, my knife ended up buried in his neck. He gave a final gurgly gasp and collapsed on me.
Immediately I pushed him off me and scrambled out from under him. I was now covered in his blood as Tara helped me to my feet. The other guy took off running, and I heard him mumble, "I didn't sign up for this shite," as he hauled ass out of here. I didn't bother to follow him. I was barely keeping myself from a panic attack, and I was on the brink of freaking out. I looked at Tara, who had put her knife away and gave me a hug, trying to comfort me as we heard the familiar rumble of bikes approaching.
A/N: I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday. It's been a busy week. I probably won't update again until Monday because I'll be at Pride this weekend, but I promise I'll update again asap. Thanks to those who read and thank you especially to my faithful reviewer. I hope you like this chapter. As I said, there will be plenty of drama in this part. Please review!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
